Contributed by Michael McDermott
The Damiani species is rather unique, in that they have developed three genders. For the sake of translation, they are identified as “he”, “she” and “it”, although there is no direct match to the type of male and female that humans are used to. Due to this triple-gendered society, romantic couplings are in groups of three. For centuries, anything else was considered perverted, although attitudes have softened since they joined the Federation.
Ra’ch B’ullhy was not only elected to be the new planetary governor of Damiano, but she was also to be the first Damiani to serve on the Federation Council. Unfortunately, during the week between the election and the inauguration someone leaked to the press that Ra’ch is involved with only one romantic partner! While most of the population couldn’t care less, some extreme moralist factions demanded a new election, and even made threats on Ra’ch’s life, should she actually accept the position. Ra’ch refused to back down, and the inauguration went ahead as schedule. There were multiple assassination attempts however, including a bomb hidden under the stage, a sniper at the inauguration, sabotage to her sonic shower, and even one of her personal body guards tried to shoot her.
However, between the efforts of the Damiano police force, and the starship Enterprise security crew, all these attempts were thwarted, and the head of the moralist faction was eventually arrested for not only attempting to kill the governor, but unleashing a weapon against the Enterprise crew as well.
While the character itself is not a lesbian, the writer chose to create a society in which its attitudes regarding relationships and sex is very obviously analagous to the lives of LGBT people in a world predominately straight.
The character appeared in the Star Trek: The Next Generation – Perchance to Dream mini series published by Wildstorm (2000).
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